Postgame Quotes - October 20, 2012

Pistons vs Bobcats

(On Rodney Stuckey being aggressive): "The good thing is, especially when the calls aren't going your way, I thought he did a good job of keeping his composure. Obviously there's a lot of calls that can go either way, and tonight they didn't go his way but he still stayed in it. Then when you stay mentally engaged, like he did, then you're able to hit that huge three. So by Rod staying in it, he was able to make that big shot for us."

(On Rodney Stuckey shooting the three): "Look, Rodney works at it every single day and worked at it all summer, he's got great balance and base and he's got a good looking stroke. When you look at how his shot has evolved over the years, he's become a lot more proficient shooter. But you still want him to attack, so it's a balance between the drive, free throws, and threes, and as long as you have that balance, it's a great arsenal to have."

(On giving up early lead): "I thought the first 10 minutes was pretty good, but I thought we started to let down the last two minutes of the first quarter. Defensively, we lost our edge in on the ball and pick-and-roll defense, (Kemba) Walker's ability to get into the paint, and transition driving up our backs. Offensively, their pressure disrupted us a little bit. Until Kim (English) scored that bucket, it was like we were in Egypt, we had that drought for a while. I think the positive is that as we made our fair share of mistakes, and you have to give credit to Charlotte's aggressiveness, at least the last two minutes, instead of being flustered, we stayed the course. There's a lot of teaching points with it, obviously we have a lot of work to do, but just to be in a close game, there are a lot of situations that are all good moment of truth things that are we do in practice, but to get in live action is good."

(On playing with Brandon Knight): "The speed of the game changes completely. I think as we continue to play more and more together, we're going to better offensively and defensively and our quickness is our advantage. We're going to have to press that and change the pace of the game when we're out there together. Every game has been a stepping stone for us, just getting better every game, feeling out rotations with different players seeing which ones work, which ones don't and continuing to improve."

(On speed of Knight and him): "Definitely, speed is a skill that works in this league. That's the whole purpose of us out there playing together. Brandon (Knight) also has the ability to shoot threes and make it a little bit easier for us out there on the court."

(On his style of play): "When I'm out there that's what I'm doing. Trying to take open shots, pressure the ball, change the pace of the game and share the basketball. That's my job out there and that's what I'm going to try do. The more we play together the better we'll get."

(On only having two preseason games left): “Yes, we are aware we only have two preseason games left, and time to focus on and really get ready for the regular season. So you are starting to see real season rotations and we are starting to get into more detail.”

(On playing extra fourth quarter minutes): “Coach told us to be prepared to play more minutes and be prepared to get the feel of regular season playing time, so I knew I was going back in.”

(On playing a tight game): “It felt good, especially in a situation like that. That’s something we have to work on in tight games like that. So, this is a good experience and it’s only going to get better from here.”

(On game): “In the first quarter we gave them the rim and the paint so they got a lot of high percentage shots with layups. Second shots, they were kicking our rear end on the board and as the game unfolded we were sturdier at the rim. We didn't give them that many easy baskets and obviously field goal percentage tells a lot of the game."

(On Tyrus Thomas): "Tyrus is getting in shape. Playing pressure defense, obviously the way we love, he can switch out on point guards and guards and create all kinds of havoc because of his length."

(On Kemba Walker): "He's a one man wrecking crew. He can bring the ball off the dribble much like (Steve) Nash can into spots with the dribble and once he gets in there we're still working on how to play in a crowd. He's trying more and more to slow down in there and stay on his feet and not jump in the air. But his improvement has been remarkable."

(On game): "I thought we just really clamped down and played some good game defense. We got a lot of deflections. We were just all in sync."

(On his fourth quarter play): "He's (Coach Mike Dunlap) is giving me a lot of freedom to just play basketball. I'm trying to go out there and do what I do and just make plays."

(On first quarter play): "I thought we had a lot of open shots. We missed a lot of open shots and then gave them a few easy baskets in the beginning. We just have to score the basketball. That’s going to be the key.